WSU Business Modernization Initiative

Nearly four decades ago the University community came together with a bold vision: invest in a mainframe computing system to help pay employees, track expenditures and help support  WSU’s growth. Since the 1980’s, we have grown from one campus to five serving Washingtonians around the state and our Global Campus serving learners around the world. In those years, the University’s operating budget has increased from about $200 million in the early 1980’s to about $1 billion, and our research activities have soared fivefold. Our early Cougar tech visionaries set us on a pathway to success in the digital age by developing a computing system which has served WSU well for decades.

Now nearly 40 years old, our homegrown finance systems and the supporting business processes have become outdated, inefficient, and unsustainable. While most other universities invested in modern finance and human resource processes and systems to support growth, WSU remained with the status quo.

Today, the signs of the need to modernize surround us every day:

  • The risk of system failure is growing; threatening operational continuity (our basic ability to pay employees and manage our budgets).
  • Existing systems and processes are unable to adequately and efficiently support the university’s growing research, instruction, and service mission statewide and around the globe.
  • Administrative processes and systems are layered, outdated and paper-intense, creating high barriers to entrepreneurial innovation and effectiveness.
  • Lagging analytics and reporting capabilities hinder strategic and timely decision making, and increase risk in under or overcommitting resources.

We have reached the point where we must invest in modern financial processes and systems to support our institutional growth. Recognizing this need, our Board of Regents has asked us to prioritize this investment as quickly as possible. Workgroups from each campus and college have been working hard over the last year on early planning and preparation activities. We strive to begin funding the modernization initiative with the University’s FY2019 budget.

The modernization initiative will be costly and will require hard work and sacrifice, but these are investments that will benefit all WSU faculty, staff, and students. The investments are necessary to help WSU manage its way out of the current budget challenges and are essential to achieving our strategic plan. We simply cannot Drive to 25 using finance and budget tools that were designed to support our 1980’s level of research activity of $40 million per year.

The modernization initiative will yield future efficiencies and savings accruing to departments across the University while providing transformational support and data analytics for research, instruction, and outreach. The modernization initiative will form an adaptable foundation for the future of WSU. In short, the modernization initiative will:

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I am pleased to report that the University is taking another important step in our shared effort to modernize. We will soon begin working with a consulting firm to help us prepare for a competitive procurement of a modern financial system.

Representatives from the consulting firm will be facilitating kick off meetings with various groups the week of June 26. Additional information will be available soon. I encourage the campus community to participate in these sessions.

For information, questions or feedback about the modernization initiative, please contact us at modern.initiative@wsu.edu.

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